A teenage girl by the name of Ayla Meadows is held against her will and experimented on by a crazed scientist. Although she manages to escape the horrors with the help of a sheriff and his group, she is forever haunted by the memories of her torture...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
———
"Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find." - Shakespeare
———
Morning comes quickly and Ayla stumbles away from the room she shared with Maggie last night towards where her group is sat around a small fire cooking up breakfast. The group is calm and content this morning, no tension or arguments to be found. Well, apart from the fact that herself and Shane purposely do not interact with each other at all.
She takes a seat next to Carl and he gives her a small welcoming smile which she returns shyly. Rick walks over to them and hands them both a plate filled with eggs and bacon which she thanks him gratefully for. She engages in quiet conversation with Carl as the rest of the group chat amongst themselves.
The chatter dies down when Glenn stands up and asks the group for his attention. They turn to him with quiet curiosity and he addresses them without making eye contact. "Um, guys." He pauses as if it makes him highly uncomfortable to deliver his next words. This only intrigues Ayla all the more and she leans forward with her eyes fixated on Glenn. "So...the barns full of walkers." He speaks quickly.
Immediately, the camp where tension was uncharacteristically not present is filled with it. Everyone stares at Glenn with the same alarmed expressions on their faces and then suddenly they're all moving towards the barn like lightning.
Ayla stands up in order to follow the marching adults but stops when she sees that Carl seems to be rooted to his seat. He stares straight ahead at nothing and doesn't look like he's aware of what's around him. "Carl?" Ayla asks worriedly but gets no reply and so she moves towards him. He still doesn't acknowledge her. She slowly sits down next to him in her seat from before and turns to face him. "Carl?" She whispers softly. "Are you okay?"
The gentleness of her voice seems to finally coax Carl from whatever dream he was in because he turns to look at her and Ayla heartbreakingly notices that his eyes are glistening with tears. "Carl." She breathes. "What's wrong? What's happened?"
Carl takes shaky breaths as he looks at her. "It's just-" He begins but has to stop to collect himself. Ayla rubs soothing circles on his back as he does it. "We've got a good life here." He says simply. "There's food, shelter, safety, our field, and we'll have to forget all of that if they make us leave." His voice is filled with pain and fear.
Ayla looks at him sympathetically. She fears the same as he does but knows she must stay strong in order to keep them both together. "Carl there's nothing to worry about." She says reassuringly. "That won't happen-"
"You don't know that!" He cuts her off sharply. Ayla looks at him as his chest heaves with anger, shocked at his outburst. She can see guilt shimmer and mix with the tears in his eyes but he continues. "You can't just say everything will be okay when you don't know that it's true! If there actually are walkers in the barn then dad and Shane won't want us to stay here because it's not safe anymore. Which means we'll be back out there on our own again, meaning more of us will die!" He shouts. "Just like Amy, and Jim, and Sophia!" He spits the words.
